The awards committee is prowd to announce the winners of the

2009 Technogy Innovations Award

 

First Place awarded $5,000.00: 

Team 1810 the Psychotechnia

Applicants were Robert Larson and Arron Robertson.  Award to be split between the 2 winners

    DRIVE TRAIN MOTORS First Robotics drive trains are restricted by the limited variety of motors that are supplied in the kit. Teams have to purchase expensive gearboxes to utilize most motors. Window / seat motors are too low geared to be usable.  Our design overcame this problem by using a window motor with a pulley system mounted on a single plate. This accomplishes the goal while still being efficient with our space, weight and ease of fabrication.

 

Second Place awarded $2,000.00: 

Team 1810  the Psychotechnia

Applicants was Bryant Webb

     CHASSIS INNOVATION USING PVC PIPING Our Robotics team made the decision to use PVC piping in the construction of our chassis. This saved weight and time; we were able to build a 15 lbs chassis in few days of construction. This also introduced some interesting challenges such as how to mount components on a round chassis and how make a chassis strong enough to weather the strain of competition.

 

Team Award, $500.00 for each winning team

Team 1810 the Psychotechnia

$1,000.00 awarded to the team

 

 

Entries: 

Team 1444, The Lightning Lancers

     PLANETARY HARMONIC TRANSMISSION The planetary-harmonic transmission is a bold and innovative design that thrives in today's market.  In a world where everything is being made smaller and more efficient, the planetary-harmonic excels.  With its capability for a small footprint and high gear ratios, the planetary-harmonic transmission combines form and function in a very innovative way.  This quality is especially valuable in robotics (and specifically, FIRST Robotics) where size restrictions are of the utmost importance.

 

Team 931, Perpetual Chaos

     ENHANCED WEIGHT REDUCTION  Weight reduction is an important robot design goal. A typical approach is to drill holes to reduce weight.  Strength-to-weight ratio can be improved by moving to triangular shaped holes.  These designs can be enhanced by computer modeling of structures, forces and stresses, and then verified by actual testing. We used an aluminum   C-channel beam, integral to our 2009 robot.  We designed an improved beam using Autodesk Inventor and MD-Solids, fabricated and tested both to determine an actual failure point compared to computer models.  We concluded lighter structures can be designed with safety margins given approximate forces and computer modeling.

 

 Team 1094, The River City Robots Channel Cats

     CONVEYOR SYSTEM DESIGN  Our team developed a dual conveyor system for efficient handling of Lunacy balls. This conveyor system used tubing to raise balls into a hopper, with a second conveyor belt system used as the “floor” of the hopper. The hopper conveyor belts could rotate right or left to shoot balls out either side of the robot. Ball control was a challenge, so we added extra components at each port to give positive control. In addition, we developed strategies that exploited the strength of our conveyor design, leading to our qualification for the finals in two regional events.

 

Team 71, The Beast

    THRUSTER FANS  Thruster fans (also referred to in the report as induct fans) that have been incorporated into our 2009 robot design have assisted the robot in acceleration.  The manner in which they were mounted on top of the drive wheels enabled the fans to set their force in the direction of driving set by the operator. This unique design also has a second benefit when it comes to your opponent trying to score moon rocks, this year’s game pieces. If a team is trying to score in your cart (that is, the goal being towed behind you), acceleration of your robot allows the Thruster fans to blow air, blowing away and redirecting the moon rocks from being scored. This added benefit occurred because of the air flow of the fans